OSU

We’ve been very pleased with our 4-vessel, 30 barrel Mothership. Chad, Dustin and the Worthy brew team have done an amazing job achieving an impressive array of premium quality beers on our new production system.

But it’s about to get crazy, in a good way.

On August 1, Worthy will spank the steel bottoms on its newest addition to the brewhouse family, our new 2-vessel, 5 barrel pilot system, which we’ve proudly named the Worthy Wunderkid. Naturally, she’s much smaller than her Mother, but this baby’s quick, resourceful and precocious.

She’ll be able to help us perfect the recipes we currently feed our Mothership. Our Wunderkid will also allow us the freedom to tinker with new recipes, new styles, new and exotic ingredients, and even recipes without a formal style. In other words, on this new pilot we’ll be able to probe new off-world colonies, sort of like in Blade Runner. Sort of.

Take a gander at her. The Wunderkid is built for speed, power and easy handling. One vessel is a combined mash and lauter tun. The other is the brew kettle and whirlpool. We will be able to brew twelve 50 liter kegs per batch, which is big enough to slake the thirst of our pub guests, but not so big that we’d feel too bad about deep sixing a batch that turned out to be unworthy.

With two mini-fermenters, we’ll have the capacity to brew up to six new seasonals every month. Imagine that, more than four seasons per month, every month.

From a practical standpoint, the Wunderkid will allow us to brew beers that wouldn’t make sense on the Mothership. We’ll be able to use exotic or grotesquely expensive (or both) ingredients for special one-offs. We’ll be able to satisfy what may only be a small cross section of our clientele with strange or whacky brews (chili beer anyone? Bacon flavored beer?).

And, drum roll please, we’ll be able to experiment with experimental hops. Yes. It’s no secret Worthy’s big on bringing new and exciting flavors from genetically new and exciting hops to the ever-demanding and damn near insatiable craft beer drinking public. You guys and gals are smart. And you demand something new. Thanks to our friends at Oregon State and Indie Hops, by the year’s end we’ll be feeding our Wunderkid with new aroma hops that OSU and IH intellectually conceived and began breeding in 2009.

Where 10 pounds of hops would barely make up 30% of the overall hop bill on our Mothership, it could be the entire hop bill on our nifty Wunderkid. It will allow us to create truly unique “one offs” for our pub that no one else would have the ability to emulate. It is the equivalent of cooking for 2 versus 200. We’ll be able to shine the light on discrete ingredients or combinations of same.

Sours. Barley Wines. Barrel aged brews. Even traditional pilsners, lagers and hefes with a special twist or two.

Come on by in early August and be the first to decide whether any of our “one offs” got the legs to make it the Bigs.

You may not know Dr. Haunold’s name, but if you love craft beer, then you know his work. At the helm of the USDA-OSU hop breeding program from 1965 to 1999, Dr. Haunold had a guiding hand in releasing over 16 hop cultivars and breeding lines to the public.

The affable, Austrian-born Dr. Haunold, who continues to reside in Corvallis with his wife Mary, gave us high aroma game-changers like Cascade, Willamette, Sterling, Liberty, Mt. Hood and Santiam. Read on…